“Japanese Student Takes Flight of Fancy, Creates Flying Bicycle” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrJE0r4NkU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrJE0r4NkU)
*Edit: Far beyond regulations and air traffic control issues, only regarding to physics:*
I’ve just seen this video of a Japanese student that has achieved making a flight of about 200 or 300m with a mechanism that turns the pedalling we normally do in a bicycle to the turning of a propeller.
Now, if we as humans and a very great bike can reach 40-50 mph (and very light planes such as cessna can take of with only 60mph – not to mention Bush Planes – all of these weighting easely 4 to 5 times the weight of a person + an extra light airplane design, specifically created for that porpouse) – why does this seems too hard to achieve/sustain? I can only guess its a matter of efficiency (or the lack of it), but which one of them?
In: Physics
The biggest issue is energy. The amount of energy required to move a person along the ground on a bicycle is incredibly small, the amount of energy required to lift a person is incredibly big in comparison. In order for a person to power a vehicle to fly it takes much, much more energy since you have to create lift using the air. This is very inefficient but also creates drag which is another force you have to fight against to create that lift. This is just to keep you in the air, you also have to expend *even more* energy to move in any direction and since you have to move air in order to do that it adds another layer of energy expenditure and inefficiency.
Could you lift your body weight directly? Could you also lift your body weight in a much more difficult and inefficient way? Could you do that while also propelling yourself forwards in an equally inefficient way? That’s why there are no human powered vehicles for air travel for the masses. Most people couldn’t even come close to getting off the ground, let alone going any kind of real distance.
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